Nature's Course
by Majesta Moniet
Summary: DISCONTINUED. Four months after BDM, Kaylee makes a decision with some unexpected consequences, and life onboard Serenity gets very interesting.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer- I do not own Firefly or profit from the use of its content.

Nature's Course

_Chapter One_

"Come with me."

"Simon…"

"I love you, Kaylee. And I want to be with you."

"Then stay with me here on Serenity. I know she ain't nothin' like the home you use to live in, but she's steady, and she's home. Our home."

The light in his eyes dimmed, and the hands that moments ago had so fervently grasped her own dropped to hang at his sides like dead weights. Kaylee swallowed hard.

"Serenity is your home, not mine." He shook his head when she opened her mouth to protest. "When I boarded over a year ago, I thought I was getting a ride to Borros. I never expected…" His thumb affectionately smoothed over her cheek. "I never expected you.

"But now that my name is cleared and River is starting to establish a consistent behavior pattern, I think its time for us to settle down planet side and start a normal life. I'm a doctor; I should be working in a hospital saving lives. I feel so useless here."

"No," Kaylee objected, "we need you. We've got plenty a' doctoring for you to do right here. Who knows when we'll be bombarded by reavers or boarded by rim pirates and need a doc to fix one of us after a heroic gun battle?" Her smile was forced, and holding back bleary tears was bringing on a throbbing in her head.

"The most I've done in the past month is give Jayne a cream for his rash," Simon said, his lips quirked into a small smile that quickly died away as the tension in the room bore down on them with growing pressure.

Kaylee took a step closer so they were almost nose and nose and whispered, "I need you."

Simon ducked his head and ran his hand up and down the length of her arm, trying to soothe her distress but only managing to overwhelm her senses all the more. "These last four months have been amazing and…I want you to come with me and River to Ariel. I have a friend there who runs a special clinic that can help River, and there are several hospitals there who've made me job offers. There's a beautiful house on the outskirts of town, just far enough away from the city…"

Kaylee's eyes widened in disbelief. "You mean you've already been plannin' this for a while now. And ya never said a word!"

The pressure of his hands grasping her shoulders brought her tirade to a hault before it could even begin. It was a moot point now; he was leaving Serenity with or without her no matter how unfair she thought it was or how much she argued.

"Come with me," he repeated.

The few seconds it took for her to decide were painful, as she turned her heart on one thing she loved in favor of another. She'd always managed to stay optimistic about life's lot, but this was beyond any silver lining.

Sniffling she wrapped her arms around his neck and reveled in the feeling of him returning the embrace with equal ardor. "I love you," she murmured in his ear.

"I love you too."

With her head on his shoulder and fingers entangled in the hair at the nape of his neck she spoke to him softly. "Serenity's my home, and these people are my family. I belong here in the black as a woman and as a mechanic. Aint nobody can take the sky from me." She felt him tense and tightened her hold. "Just don' think it would work; me being planet side all the time, not seeing everybody…"

There was a stretch of silence where neither were willing to let go, both refusing to acknowledge the gravity what she'd said. They pretended they were just two people in love holding each other, just for another moment longer.

Finally Kaylee pressed a kiss to his cheek and said "I love you" one last time, because she wanted him to know that she meant, meant it with everything she was. Once she'd pulled away, her limbs felt stiff, like she was a foreigner to her own body, and unable to take the despair on Simon's face, Kaylee forced her feet to leave his room and carry her to the engine room where she collapsed in shock against the wall.

She stared blankly at the whirring engine, it's quiet drone not as comforting as it usually was. She simply sat and stared. Seconds lengthened into minutes, and the engine continued its spinning constant, monotonous, and steady.

Her breathing began to quicken, her pulse picking up speed. Despite the burning in her eyes, she didn't raise a hand to clear the bleariness from her vision. A tremble starting in her hands spread up her arms and to the center of her chest where it took hold of her lungs and refused to relinquish them. A dry heave climbed up her throat and escaped past trembling lips in a silent sob. The engine kept spinning.

A blink set trails of salt water down red cheeks, and another breathless sob shook her frame until finally a noise sounded in the back of her throat like air escaping from the smallest hole of a pipe, high-pitched and uncontrolled. The whine came again and again growing louder until her sobs were deep and pain-filled. Her cries were so loud she could no longer hear the engine turning as she shivered and wept on the engine room floor.


	2. Chapter 2

Nature's Course

_Chapter Two_

"Where's that girl when you need her?"

"Kaylee?"

"Yes Kaylee. I've got a little problem with this."

Inara raised an eyebrow at the large chunk of metal in Mal's hand; a hole the size of a marble had crudely eroded through the middle.

"And by little problem I mean we won't be going anywhere until this gets fixed."

Inara finished placing the last can of preserves in the kitchen cabinet before turning to face the distraught captain. "It may be a while before she gets back. The lines were terrible at the clinic."

Mal cocked his head. "Clinic?"

"The local women's clinic," she explained with a role of her eyes. "She's probably just…picking up a few personal items. Either that or getting the new vaccination."

Mal's face turned serious. "You don't know?"

She shrugged and casually shifted her weight back against the counter. "I was on my way out when I saw her sitting in the lobby. It was too loud for her to hear me, and I was in a hurry to finish picking up a few things." She paused and gave him an appraising look. "Why the interest?"

Mal seemed to consider something before tossing the engine part on the table and leaving the kitchen while muttering a curse under his breath.

After questioning a few citizens at the docks, Mal was able to locate the clinic with relative ease, but finding Kaylee once he was inside was another matter. Women, many of whom had children with them, had packed the lobby from wall to wall to the point where it was impossible to move with out being shuffled from person into another.

"Does the shot hurt? I hope it's not too painful."

"Can you believe it took the alliance this long to make the injection mandatory?"

"Don't see the point of me being here. The only man I'm with is my husband, and I know he doesn't have any virus. If it were up to me, only the whores would be waiting in these lines."

"I saw a companion here just a couple of hours ago. I've never seen anyone quite so graceful."

"Yeah? Well it's because of women like her that were even here."

He finally found her in the far corner of the room sitting on a plastic bench listlessly staring at her hands, which were twisting nervously in her lap. He hesitated, suddenly unsure about what to say, before flipping a coin to the shabby old woman sitting next to his mechanic and taking her seat.

When Kaylee didn't look up, he slid his arm along the back of the bench and said, "Ain't seen this many woman in one room since the day before my momma's bake sale when I was just a boy."

Her head snapped up, and an uneasy smile was quickly fixed on her face. "What ya doin' here Cap'n?"

"Oh, you know," he said with a heavy sigh, "just thought I better come get my vaccination. Wouldn't want to go spreadin' anything with all me promiscuity."

Her smile turned more genuine but fell short of her eyes. "Sure is thoughtful of you."

They fell into an uneasy silence, neither wanting to divulge their own reasons for coming but eager for the other to reveal as much. Sitting there Mal couldn't help but noting how sad the woman looked. It was coming on two months since they'd left Ariel along with the doctor and his sister, and Kaylee had been getting better, smiling more like she use to, until a week back when she started eating less and keeping to herself in a very unKaylee-like manner. At night he could hear her crying straight though the wall and fancy music that hid her from him, and he'd coursed the doctor's name more than a handful of times.

But looking at her right then, Mal saw something more than sadness in her face. Fear and anxiety were visible in the rapid bouncing of her knee, the twisting of her fingers, and the glassiness in her expression. Keeping his composure he nudged her foot and asked, "You got much longer before your number's called?"

She didn't meet his eyes. "Already went."

"You got your shot?"

"…"

"Personal womanly items?"

She snorted unconvincingly.

"Girl, you gonna keep me…"

"Couldn't get the shot," she muttered to her lap so that Mal could barely hear.

He waited for her to elaborate, though he felt his suspicions were already confirmed, something that would lead to another conversation entirely. He could see her summoning her courage; her feet stilled and she took a big breath and let it slide past her lips.

She turned to face him, though her head remained ducked. "Apparently," she cleared her throat, "they wont give you the shot if you're…" Her hand gestured vaguely in the air to communicate what she was so afraid to voice.

"Pregnant?" he offered.

Clasping her hands tightly, she looked up towards the ceiling, her eyes wandering over everything and anything that wasn't him. "If that's the term you want to use."

She was tense waiting for his reaction, for him to look at her in disbelief, yell, rant and rave, or even just look disappointed, but he did none of that. Instead he simply nodded and returned her expectant gaze without judgment.

"So it's the good company that's keeping you here."

Shaking her head she ran hands across her face, tension building in her bent shoulders. "I can't have a baby, Mal. I grew up in my daddy's garage; don't know the first thing about motherin'. Raising a child by myself with nobody to…it wouldn't be fair to the baby."

"Now who said anything about you being by yourself? Last time I checked six people was a mite more than one."

She shook her head resolutely. "Wouldn't even consider putin' you through have'n the hassle of a child and incapable mother on board Serenity. It wouldn't be good for the crew, not to mention jobs. Can't go back home; Daddy would be so disappointed."

"Kaylee, have I ever done something that wasn't for the good of the crew? Having you onboard is in Serenity's best interest, baby and all."

Kaylee was unconvinced bud didn't argue. "Aint like its something to worry about much longer anyway." She glanced over at the robust woman rolling around the room with a clipboard. "I imagine it's about my turn."

"But I thought you just said…" Comprehension donned, and Mal felt disbelief itch at his skin. Obstinately he shook his head. "Ain't any way in the black I'm letting you kill your baby."

"Mal, it's my decis…"

He took a breath and turned her shoulders to face him. "Look at me. You do this, and you'll regret it. I know you, Kaylee, and I know you don't really want to lose this child. You think you'd be doing the crew a favor, but you're wrong." He pushed a piece of hair out of her face. "You ain't a killer."

"But Simon…"

"Screw him. This is about you, and how angry and hurt you're going to be tomorrow if you go through with it. I will not watch you fall apart like…" A shadow was cast across his face.

Kaylee closed her eyes to push back the tears and murmured, "I'm not your mother, Mal." She squeezed his hand reassuringly. "I'm not gonna do this to get back at Simon for leaving, I'm doing this because it's for the best."

Mal leveled her a serious look. "I ain't takin' another night of you crying yourself to sleep, and I ain't letting you make that kind of sacrifice because you think its what Serenity needs." His voice softened. "What Serenity needs is the bright, happy mechanic who can fix just about goram anything and can hum at annoyingly high volumes. We're here Kaylee. You won't be doing anything alone." He released her and leaned back in his chair, loosing his formidable intensity. "'Sides, our girl's been feeling a mite empty lately."

He stood and offered her a hand up. Kaylee looked at his face and then stared uncertainly at his outstretched palm. After a few moments of indecision, she accepted it and let Mal guide her out the clinic doors.


	3. Chapter 3

Nature's Course

_Chapter Three_

"Now everybody listen up. Kaylee's got herself an announcement to make."

"…really couldn't believe that he was that blind…"

"…just add some spice, something sweet…"

"…thinking to myself this has to be the best damn ops work…"

"…big stick up his…"

"Hey, shut up!" Mal looked around the dinner table as the chatter died down and his crew gave him tolerant stares. "As I said, Kaylee here has something to say."

The mechanic fidgeted under the attention and remained silent standing next to Mal until he prompted her with a gentle squeezed of her shoulder. "I…um…"

Jayne crossed his arms over his broad chest and muttered, "Food ain't gettin' any warmer." A well-placed kick to his shin from Zoe silenced him.

"Just thought you'd want to know I'm pregnant is all," she said, and the words rushed out faster than she planned, not sounding at all as nonchalant as she would've liked. Surprise was prevalent throughout the table with raised eyebrows and wide eyes baring down on her

After a few moments of silence had passed, Jayne raised his hand. "We sellin' it?"

"What?" Mal scoffed, "No, we're not selling Kaylee's baby."

"Just sayin' it'd be worth a shiny coin on the black-market."

Mal glared. "No."

Another awkward quiet settled over the room, everybody unsure of what to say, what they were supposed to do, before, "There's a baby black-market?"

Jayne grunted an affirmative. "Damn, Rex, I thought you were supposed to be worldly, bein' a cosmetician n' all. Course there's a black-market for babies. All sorts of women out there can't get kids the regular way."

"Cosmopolitan," Rex groaned into his hand, "I'm a cosmopolitan. I do not peddle lipsticks and eye colors to vane women who attempt to cover up their own insecurities with a mask of beauty that is only skin deep. Not that I'm referring to you, Inara, my dear. Your spirit is a flowing fountain of vitality."

Jayne turned to the companion with a frown. "How's it he's gotten to see yer spirit, and I ain't?" He leered at her. "I like fountains."

With a roll of her eyes and flourish of her skirts, Inara was on her feet, Kaylee caught in a warm hug. "Congratulations, Meimei! I had no idea! You'll be an ideal mother."

The silk of Inara's dress was soft against Kaylee's cheek as she smiled at the comment. "Oh, I don't know about that."

Inara pulled away and wiped a smudge of engine grease off the younger woman's chin. "Nonsense. You're compassionate, patient, and have so much love to give. I can't imagine a better candidate." With that she led her to a seat at the table, catching Mal's grateful look out of the corner of her eye.

Once Inara's warm response was established as acceptable and spread to the rest of the crew, breakfast passed with bubbling conversation and soft teasing, everyone lingering longer than usual to take in the upbeat, spirited atmosphere the ship had gone without for the last few months. Smiles were shared around the table, Kaylee's grin anxious, Mal's attentive, and Inara's lips curved with a undecipherable wistfulness.

And Zoe watched slightly withdrawn at the opposite end of the table, their story unfolding in her mind as if life had just become that more predictable. Restlessly she wondered if this was how River had felt when those around her appeared stripped of their pretences and deceiving fronts, their true intentions left bare. Apparently reading wasn't an ability left solely to the psychics.


	4. Chapter 4

Nature's Course

_Chapter Four_

Waking had never been quite so unpleasant. She was boiling in her own sweat; the heat of her skin hot, itchy, and painfl. Discarded pants and sheets lying crumpled on the floor mocked her discomfort as she twisted and turned atop her mattress in a vain search of relief. Her stomach started to roll, and with a painful groan she stumbled from the bunk towards the far wall.

Fingers blindly felt for the handle as she slid down the cool metal towards the floor. They caught just as her stomach rioted, and she bent over the toilet heaving what little she had eaten the night before. Salty tears leaked past her cheeks to settle on the corners of her lips where their saltiness lingered with the gagging bitterness of her vomit.

Why did she always cry when she got sick?

Trembling, hunched over on her knees, she didn't flinch when rough skin brushed her ears, and large fingers combed back the hair from her face. "Just breath," came a calming voice, but Kaylee couldn't stop gasping for air in-between bouts of sickness.

Had it been anyone else she would have been ashamed to be caught like that, nightshirt stuck to the sweat of her body, shaking, and kneeling before a toilet while she heaved the contents of her stomach, but it was Mal, and he'd seen her at her worst.

"It'll be over soon, Mei-mei."

She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, her grasping the sides of the toilet while he held her hair out of the way and rubbed circles on her back, as he said small things to keep her calm and let her knew he was there. Eventually her stomach emptied, and Mal grabbed a towel and helped clean her up, though it was mostly just her face and hands in need of attention.

Kaylee sniffled as he tossed the soiled rag into the sink and rubbed the drying tracks of tears from her face. "Sorry to wake you."

Mal shrugged and absently slid his hands up down her arms when he saw her shiver. The fever was waning, and she'd discarded all her clothing save a nightshirt. "Didn't."

Kaylee looked doubtful, but leaned into his chest nonetheless. "Ya couldn't have been up already. Ain't properly morning yet. The illness is a misnomer, you know."

"I sure it's morning somewhere," he defended. "Could't sleep when something kept nagging at me. Call it my captain's sense if you like. Just know when something isn't right with my crew."

She nodded in understanding, the top of her head gently bumping against the bottom of his chin. "Like the way I feel with Serenity. I just sorta…feel when something's wrong with her."

"I imagine it's the same nature."

Kaylee remained quiet for a few moments, her mind and stomach both needing a few moments to settle. There was no safer place, she realized as she sat on the floor of her room with Mal surrounding her. Reavers could have been hot on their tale at that very moment and she still wouldn't have felt terribly threatened, because that was how Serenity and Mal made her feel: safe. They were the two she trusted most in the 'verse.

The thought caused a sense of confidence to bloom inside of her, and she found herself asking the thing she's always wanted to know but never had the audacity to voice. "How come you and Inara didn't work out?"

Mal didn't respond, but Kaylee didn't feel him tense and took that as a sign of encouragement. "You two seemed to be getting along pretty well not long after we left Miranda, and then just when everyone was startin' to get use to the idea of you two acting like a normal couple, ya split," she murmured into his shirt.

When he didn't say anything right away, Kaylee figured she'd pushed too far and was about to apologize when he cleared his throat and swallowed.

"Inara and me…we're both too stubborn for our own good. Neither of us favor change when we're set in our ways." He said it casually, but his tone was deep and serious and spoke of the hurt he was still experiencing.

"She had every right, I suppose," he said as if it were the first time he admitted it out loud or even at all. "Why give up everything you've ever worked for to have a relationship that might not last?"

Kaylee pulled back and sat on her heels clearly frustrated. "You mean you two didn't get together cause she didn't wanna give up bein' a ompanion?"

"Well, that ain' all…"

"Sometimes you just gotta take a risk," she interrupted, her voice rising. "You two had a chance at havin' somethin' real special, and all she could think about was how it might not work out? Well nothin's ever gonna work if you don' try!"

"Kaylee." Mal grabbed Kaylee's shoulders and gave her an amused half smile. "It wasn't all Inara's fault. I deserve my fair share of blame."

"You had every right to want her to give it up. I wouldn't have put up with Simon sleeping with anyone else, let alone several someone elses who were paying him."

"She _was_ willing to give up her life as a Companion."

Kaylee's face crinkled in confusion. "But you said…"

Mal sighed and leaned back against the side of the bed with his arms crossed. It was a defensive position, one he assumed whenever he was going to say something disagreeable. "She agreed to find a new line of work as long as I did the same."

Kaylee's hand reflexively jerked forward to clutch his ankle in shock. "You mean…she wanted you to give up Serenity?"

"It ain't exactly what she said. Just told me she wouldn't give up her career if I wasn't willin' to stop living so dangerously and inconsistently. Course I'd fall over dead before lettin' Serenity fly under the Union flag, which would be the only safe job profitable enough to keep her flying." Mal paused because he had never given the idea of leaving Serenity all together a single thought when he and Inara had argued the point months ago. It had never been an option.

Lips pursed, Kaylee folded her arms. "She ain't ever had a problem with the way we live on Serenity before. Why now?"

Mal's eyes roamed over the small room's trinkets and knickknacks that made it distinctly Kaylee's, as he couldn't find the will to look at her disappointed face; disappointed in Inara, disappointed in him, disappointed in the entire situation.

"If she was gonna give up one perspective future, she wanted to be sure there was another one worth livin. A woman's got a right to settle down." His words made it sound like Inara had been completely reasonable, but his tone wasn't as submissive. He'd been disappointed in Inara as well.

Kaylee was left feeling…well, she wasn't sure how she felt. She was upset with Inara because the companion thought Serenity wasn't good enough a place to start a family, and that was exactly what she was doing, frustrated for Mal because he had had to make the same decision as she did and choose Serenity over the person he loved, and, as selfish as it sounded, relieved that Mal and Inara didn't leave even though they could have been happy together.

"Now I don't want you to get angry with Inara. She was just being logical by lookin' at it realistically," Mal said seriously, slipping into the Captain tone he used to give orders.

But that was exactly why she was upset with Inara, she thought everything out with reason while Kaylee always acted on emotion and what felt right or wrong. However when Kaylee saw Mal's earnest expression, she nodded in consent and leaned over to grace his cheek with a kiss, a promise. "At least you're starting to get over her."

Mal snorted because he felt he might never truly be over the woman who had so unintentionally captured him. "And how do you figure that?"

"You defended her," she said with a shrug. "Right after Simon left I hated him and blamed him for all my hurting. Now," she said with a small smile, "I realize it's not fair to be angry with him. He only did what he thought best, and I don't put up with anyone sayin' otherwise."

Mal thought on what she said before leveling her with a questioning look. "You over the doctor then?"

She placed a warm hand to her growing abdomen. "I've just given my love to someone else."


	5. Chapter 5

Nature's Course

_Chapter Five_

"I'm fat."

"You're beautiful," Inara cooed warmly.

"I'm still fat."

No matter how much Kaylee pulled, the clasps refused to meet, and the overalls fell back down bellow her expanded stomach. Inara smiled amusedly at the mechanic's futile efforts to dress herself before reaching for the straps and securing them around Kaylee's hips.

"There, that should hold long enough for you to find something that actually fits you." She pulled out a parchment from her robes. "Here's the list of a few places that sell maternity clothes in the city. You'll want to start in the Ferellu District."

Kaylee accepted the paper grudgingly having only recently resigned herself to purchasing bigger clothing. "Thanks, 'Nara," she said with no real enthusiasm.

The clumping of heavy boots down the metal staircase had both girls turning to glance at Mal as he entered the cargo bay. "Inara, we leave in two days. No later."

"Am I ever late?"

Choosing wisely not to answer, he turned towards Kaylee with a raised eyebrow. "You goin' somewhere."

She limply waved the list in her hand. "Clothes shopping 'cause I'm fat."

"Not alone ya ain't," he said as he breezed past the pair and approached the mule, checking the heavy containers strapped to the back.

"Mal," Inara pressed firmly, "she's six months pregnant and doesn't have anything to wear. She needs to pick up a few things."

"Don't got a problem with her buyin' clothes," he exhaled with a grunt while loading another crate, "as long as she don't go by herself. You take her."

"I can't," Inara replied impatiently, "I have a client waiting."

And where the captain normally made a sarcastic barb, there was only the thud of one container being sat atop another. Inara still wasn't accustomed to it after all these months.

"Then Zoe can go with her."

"Sir?" The second in command entered the bay, her head cocked and hand on hip.

Dust filled the air beneath Mal's hands as he slapped them together before wiping them clean on his pants. "You go with Kaylee and help her with her…business, and Jayne will come with me. The job mostly just requires heavy lifting anyway."

"…"

"Not that you can't handle heavy lifting, 'cause ya can," he quickly amended when she gave him a pointed look. "It's just that that's what Jayne's good at. Makes him feel useful. You know, 'See Jayne. See Jayne lift.' It's all the man's got."

"Who's a man?"

"You are," Rex told Jayne as he crossed the catwalk. "You're a big, box-lifting man."

"Damn straight."

"Great. It's settled. Jayne with me. Zoe with Kaylee. Be back before dark. Inara." Mal mocked a bow before jumping aboard the mule with Jayne in toe. Zoe watched them leave with a grimace before turning towards hesitantly towards Kaylee.

"I've gotta list of places." Kaylee offered the paper to Zoe, who read it over briefly.

"Clothes shopping." Zoe sighed. "Right."

­­­­­­­

The pressure behind her eyes was building at a painful rate, and all Zoe did to indicate her discomfort was shift her weight and folded arms to the left. Throughout the course of the day, she and Kaylee had been to every place on the list in the Ferellu district and half the ones past the fifth gate with their only purchases consisting of a lunch at a local bar and a spare part for Serenity's cooling system. With the sun dipping lower in the sky, Zoe found herself once again standing outside of a changing stall in a low-end trading store.

Her headache continued to grow.

"This don't quite fit right, do it?" Kaylee appeared through the ragged curtain clad in a floral maternity dress made from an obscenely bright pink color laced with green ribbon. A spin in front of the mirror left her feeling dissatisfied and a quick glance at Zoe caught the stoic woman staring off uninterestedly out the store window.

With a frown and a sigh, Kaylee turned her attention back to the smudged mirror and indiscriminately picked at the swathes of pink fabric. "Zoe?"

"Hmm."

"You loved Wash, right?"

At the mention of her deceased husband, Zoe's mind sharpened and she regarded Kaylee's reflection with caution. "Of course." She would have been offended had she not known that Kaylee wasn't truly asking a question but rather tactlessly leading into a potentially deep conversation.

"But you didn't at first?"

"I wasn't particularly fond of him when we first met, if that's what you mean."

Kaylee nodded an affirmative and began fidgeting with the collar of the dress. Her tone was light but serious as she asked, "But when you did realize that you had feelings, real deep feelings, for him, you didn' let anyone tell ya otherwise, not even the captain?"

Zoe tipped her head curiously as the conversation began to take an interesting turn. "No." She found herself recalling the first days she'd realized that her feelings for the pilot extending past disdain and mistrust. "I was a fool in love with an equally foolish man."

"But its okay to be a fool," Kaylee rushed anxiously, "if ya got love right?"

A small smile pulling at her lips, Zoe nodded thoughtfully. "More than okay."

The comment seemed to appease Kaylee's curiosity and she returned to analyzing her appearance in the mirror, leaving Zoe to mull over the odd exchange. It wasn't often any of the crew dare to mention Wash, especially around her. In fact all of the events that occurred on Miranda were a taboo subject onboard Serenity. No one mentioned Wash, the disturbing end of Miranda's citizens, Mr. Universe's death, or the assistance indirectly provided by the Alliance to make Serenity once again space worthy. The lessons weren't by any means forgotten, but the past, like the dead, was best left to rest in peace.

"…be the baby's godmother?"

Zoe blinked. "Pardon?"

At some point Kaylee had moved to stand right in front of her, all confidence and hopefulness as she patiently asked, "Would you be willin' to be my baby's godmother? It'd mean a lot if ya said yes."

Zoe was stunned and altogether unsure how to respond. "Me?" she finally managed. "Don't you think that's something Inara would be better suited for?" She asked laughingly, as if the thought of her acting as a mother to anyone would be laughable, unrealistic, and not at all manageable.

Unfazed by her response, Kaylee shrugged. "I don't see why. Known you longer. And you've got the motherin' instinct. I can smell it on you strong as real coffee grinds." Kaylee gave her signature smile.

Zoe cleared her throat of the lump that had formed there and fought to regain complete control of her countenance. The Resistance had never trained her to combat the ache of past dreams being dangled just in her reach. "Kaylee, I don't…we've never really been…"

"'Sides," the mechanic said more seriously, "I know you'll be there when she needs ya. Yer as stuck to Serenity as I am."

Zoe couldn't argue that. "She?"

"Just an inkling."

With a sure-footed step, Zoe reached out and soothed her hands along the sleeves of cheap fabric covering Kaylee's arms. "It looks good."

Kaylee giggled and crinkled her nose in distaste.

After giving Kaylee's outfit an appraising once over, Zoe calmly began undoing the ties in the back. "What exactly are the godmother's obligations?"

Kaylee beamed and caught Zoe's eyes in the mirror, her sincere appreciation conveyed in the silence of a woman's understanding.


	6. Chapter 6

Nature's Course

_Chapter Six_

"Power jumper."

"Power jumper."

Kaylee blindly clasped grease-stained fingers around the pronged tool placed in her outstretched hand and pulled it down beneath the engine where the upper half of her body was submerged in tangled wires and rusted parts. The only noise aside from the quiet murmur of a bright melody being hummed were Mal's sighs of frustration at being forced to stand by while a heavily pregnant woman was crammed beneath his engine fixing all the wrongs.

"Kaylee, I am quite capable of replacing a converter on the…"

"Puller's hook."

Mal sighed and rummaged through the box before passing the instrument into her impatient hand. This was ridiculous.

"My, that is the flattest puller's hook I have ever seen. Ya know, it almost looks like a screwdriver…"

"See how inept I am? I bet if we traded places you would do a much better job. Show me up just the like."

A strangled noise that sounded like a strange mix between a grunt and exasperated sigh resounded from beneath the engine. "If yer gonna be sour about it, you can go fetch Jayne, and he can help me. At least he's entertaining."

"Well I'd do a little jig with some tappin' and spinning but I don't think your feet would appreciate it for the art it is. The pair seems a bit close-minded."

His barb elicited a giggle from the mechanic, and he could imagine her amused half-smile. "Ya could sing."

"Hn. I don't sing."

"Sure ya do. Just the other night I heard ya give a melting rendition of the Trader's Anthem along with Rex. Though I have to admit that between ya, you were clearly possessin' the superior talent."

Allowing his weight to rest against the engine room wall, Mal crossed his arms and tilted his head curiously. "And how is it that I hold no recollection of this event, and you do?"

"Cuz you were head-on-the-floor drunk, and I wasn't."

"Well you best have this baby fast so that everyone can get drunk and be blissfully unaware of the occurrences by the time the sun rises. You've got an unfair advantage as it is."

Her hand was groping around the floor by her knees, and Mal pushed the fuser towards her wandering fingers with the toe of his boot. She grunted in appreciation. "Mal, you've got nothin' to worry yourself about. Ya honestly got a decent baritone, all rough like you don't use it enough. It's…sexy."

Mal perked up, his eyebrows rising in surprise. Whether because Kaylee had just called him sexy or because she'd just let his name roll off her lips with a natural ease, he wasn't sure. The former was the easiest to remark on.

"You think I'm sexy, Kaylee?"

"I said your voice was sexy. Careful not to hit your big head on the doorframe when ya leave."

"It's just that some women may argue that a man's voice is one of his most important features," he teased.

Kaylee snorted.

"You don't agree?"

"No."

There was a loud clunk of metal falling, and a quiet curse from Kaylee quickly followed. Mal would have asked if she were all right if he didn't think it would earn him a boot in the shin. "Then what is it that makes the charming Kaylee Frye tick?"

Kaylee didn't even have to pause and think. "Aside from his head on straight and his heart in the right place," Kaylee paused as she began to shimmy out from beneath the engine, and Mal reached out to help her up, "a man's got to have strong pair of hands."

Her hand clasped tightly in his, he almost faltered as he pulled her to her feet but managed to quickly recover and play it off as a loss of balance as she regained her footing. His palms suddenly sweaty, he wiped them on the sides of his pants as he cleared his throat. "Hands, huh?"

"Course strong don't mean anything if he don't use 'em."

"For fixing boats?"

She shrugged. "Boats, bodies, whatever needs workin'."

The cloth she'd pulled from her back pocket did little to help remove the oil from her hands, but it didn't seem to bother her any. It shouldn't after so many years of taking care of Serenity.

"I suppose the same can be said for a woman. By the meaning that I got no patience for an idle girl…" He trailed off as Kaylee gently grasped his hands in hers and gave them the same treatment she'd been showing hers just a moment ago.

"Didn't mean to get ya dirty," she explained as she rubbed away the black smudges.

Mal watched, almost entranced by the motion. "Comes with the territory, I gather."

"I know plenty o' captains who never step foot in an engine room, or off the bridge for that matter."

"Wasn't talking about being captain," he said, his eyes still fixed on her skin moving over his. "I meant watching over you."

Her hands faltered and then stopped all together. In the time it took for her to look up and meet his eyes, a smile had spread across her face and her cheeks had acquired a rosy stain that told him all sorts of things he'd yet to hear out loud. Her mouth opened and closed before a word could escape, and she shook she her head in something akin to amazement. "Ya got nice hands," she managed finally.

Mal chuckled, a noise that seemed to dispel the growing tension between them, and for that they were both grateful. "First my voice, now my hands…By the time this evening is over, I just might think so highly of myself I'll plot a course for the nearest alliance cruiser and proudly enlist as a purple-belly. Narcissism is a requirement, ya know."

Kaylee rolled her eyes, tossing the dirty rag at his chest as she turned to leave the engine room. "So does this "watching over" me include cooking me up a meal every once in a while?"

"Do you want your child to suffer from long term gastrointestinal damage?"

"Point taken."


	7. Chapter 7

Nature's Course

_Chapter Seven_

"Buenas tardes y bienvenido a La Isla de Porcelana. ¿Verificar en?"

Kaylee stared incomprehensively at the obscenely smiling receptionist behind the polished black desk, her tan skin, black hair, and red fingernails all disarmingly shiny. Rex didn't seem fazed.

"Sí. Mi esposa y yo tienen una reservación bajo el nombre de Trujillo." He rambled all of this off flawlessly before placing a loving hand on Kaylee's expanding stomach. "Para tres."

Kaylee's attempts to match the receptionist's glowing grin came up short, and she resigned herself to looking around at all the finery and frippery the resort had to offer as she and Rex were led to their room. Now Kaylee had done her fair share of traveling but before two days ago she had never encountered any planet like Santa María.

_Two days earlier…_

Gathered around the kitchen table, Serenity's crew listened to Mal speak with varying levels of patience.

"The Porcelain Isle is a um…"

"Health spa and resort."

"…located on the planet San-stan M-mario…"

"Santa Maria."

"The resort's run by the Castilo family…"

"Castillo. There's two 'l's, so it sound like a 'y.' Cast_ill_o—"

"Rex, are you gonna tell 'em or am I?"

Rex bowed his head and touched his hand to his chest looking wounded. "Forgive me. Go on."

Mal made a face but continue on nonetheless. "Anyway, the owners are dirty and the clientele is of the rich variety, so it costs a pretty penny to get in. Ya have to get reservations months in advance, but we just so happened to win…"

"Eh, eh, hem."

"…one in a friendly game of 5 card gamble on Persephone…"

"Ah hem."

Mal heaved a sigh. "_Rex_ won the reservations in a game of gamble on Persephone," he said irritated.

The pilot held up his hands. "Please, no need to bestow me with your gracious praise. I owe it all to Lady Luck."

"So we're gonna get in with the reservations and get out with their safety deposit boxes," Jayne deadpanned from where he was rocking back on the hind legs of a kitchen chair. "Sounds easy 'nough."

"There's a catch," Inara said knowingly. She hadn't removed her eyes from Mal's face throughout the entire briefing and could tell there was something he hadn't brought to light.

"A few actually," Mal confirmed. "The people of Santa Maria only speak a language called Spanish, an old dialect from Earth That Was."

"That could cause problems." Zoe didn't like it, not one bit. It was no good being trapped in a place where you've got no means to communicate.

"Not as many as you might think," Mal interjected. "Rex's been to the planet on a few occasions and has picked up the language in his travels."

"So then, what are the problems?" Inara pressed.

Mal shared a look with Kaylee before saying, "The reservations are for a Mr. and Mrs. Trujillo, and they've scheduled prenatal therapy sessions for their visit."

Inara opened her mouth to protest but Jayne beat her to it. "That some term for kinky sex? Cuz I could learn Spanish."

As everyone turned to stare at him, Jayne's eyes widened, and he looked at them all in disgust. "Hell I didn't mean so I could get it in on with Rex! I figure Zoe or 'Nara would go as the Mrs."

"Mrs. Trujillo is pregnant," Mal said to direct the conversation back to the job, "which means Kaylee's our best bet."

"Mal, you can't be serious." Inara fixed him with a challenging look that he'd received on numerous occasions, but still always managed to get under his skin. "She's almost eight months along, and any sort of stress could cause…"

"Inara, I appreciate your concern, but I've already discussed it with Kaylee, and she's agreed to go."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Of course she did! She doesn't want to let you down, and you're just taking advantage without even thinking of the consequences."

Kaylee stood as if to speak, but as Mal's face turned stony and he settled Inara with a glare of his own, the mechanic couldn't find her voice. "Inara, that's enough."

"How can you be so selfish as to put Kaylee in danger just so you get some payout…"

Mal leaned forward, hands flat on the tabletop. "That's enough!"

The room grew silent.

It wasn't unusual for their captain to get angry or even raise his voice, but the look in Mal's eyes when he yelled at Inara right then…it was something fierce, and the crew was left feeling thrown.

After several moments of tense stillness, Inara flinched back to life, looking shaken and miffed as she refused to remove her gaze from Mal, who straightened and ran a hand across his chin in agitation.

Kaylee silently looked between the two in confusion before exiting the room altogether.

_Present Day…_

As their guide came to a stop, Kaylee almost ran smack into the back of Rex, as she was too distracted by the patrons passing them in the hall. They all looked so glamorous in their shiny silk dresses and satin shoes. Kaylee self-consciously fingered her own cotton maternity gown. She felt underdressed.

"Kaylee."

She turned and entered the room, only making it two steps inside before freezing in place.

_AN: I'll owe any Spanish misuse to the evolution of the dialect on the planet. He he._


	8. Chapter 8

Nature's Course

_Chapter Eight_

Kaylee blinked, stared, and blinked again.

Across the room on the balcony stood a couple, crystal wine goblets in hand, staring out at the exotic gardens sprawled beneath them. So far, all was going according to plan; Mal had made the keycard switch, and the room was occupied. But when the couple turned at the sound of the door opening, Kaylee felt her heart skip a beat.

The man stepped forward his brow scrunched in concern. "Is there a problem?"

The bellhop seemed just as confused and glanced down at the room key in his hand. "I-I am sery, Sir. Ther has been a misteek," he apologized in broken basic.

The man waved a hand in dismissal. "No harm in an honest mistake."

As the guide turned to usher Kaylee and Rex back outside of the room, the woman, who had left the balcony to stand by her husband's side, let out a gasp. "Oh! How far along are you?"

Kaylee remained firmly rooted to where she stood with her eyes flying back and forth between the man and the approaching woman. "Eight months." She was surprised by the ease in which the words left her hanging jaw.

"Boy or girl?" The woman was standing right next to her now, a warm smile on her face, as Kaylee stared, shell-shocked, into curious brown eyes that looked so hauntingly familiar.

"I don't know," she murmured.

"Well I've had both, and while boys are easier to handle when they're younger, they're much more adept at finding trouble once they have grown." The woman's smile faltered, and a shiver shot down Kaylee's spine.

"I'll remember that."

The next moment Rex's hand was on her arm, and they were in the hallway with the bellhop speaking rapidly in Spanish.

"…lo siento, Senior."

Rex bristled, appearing very affronted, and began dealing out what Kaylee could only assume to be insults. "¿Usted es arrepentido? ¡Estúpido imbécil! ¿Dónde está nuestro cuarto?"

The man stuttered and looked around helplessly. "No sé…Yo le tomaré a la recepción."

"¡Idiota inútil!"

"Excuse me, I think I could be of some assistance."

Had Kaylee not still been reeling from her encounter with the couple just moments before, she may have found this moment quite amusing; Mal, clad in a gaudily bright checked hotel uniform complete with fake identification and cheesy smile, placed a calming hand on the abused bell hop who was flinching away from Rex's dramatic Spanish rampage which had escalated to the brandishing of arms.

Patting the man on the back, Mal gently led him a few steps down the hall, before stopping and lowering his voice. "Management sent me to escort Mr. and Mrs. Trujillo to the correct room, the alabaster suite. They also asked to see you immediately." He held out his hand towards the nervous man and motioned towards his bottom floor clearance keycard.

There was a pause in which the man seemed to be debating over relinquishing the restricted access card, and Mal, sensing that the man needed some encouragement, said, "They didn't sound none too happy that one of their top clients has suffered such an inconvenience. The term 'early retirement' might have been mentioned. ¿Comprende?"

The man all but bolted down the hall after handing over the keycard to Mal. "I thought everyone only spoke Spanish," Rex wondered quietly aloud as they moved down the hall flashing inconspicuous smiles at anyone they passed.

"Seems tourism is leaving its mark. Most of the workers I've encountered can speak at least a bit of basic, so don't be thinkin' you're safe from being overheard just cuz you aint speakin' what they are. Kaylee, you doin' alright? Looks like the color's been scared out of ya."

After nervously clearing her throat, Kaylee said, "It's just…back there in that room was Simon and River's folks."

"Is that so?" Though Mal didn't seem fazed by this fact, his mind was working a mile a minute going over any implications it may have on the plan or on Kaylee.

She nodded. "I recognize 'em from a capture River showed me once. Simon never did like talkin' about 'em, but River didn't mind any."

"You think there's a chance River or Simon might be…"

"No," Kaylee said firmly. "Simon doesn't forgive easily."

Her words meant more than what they said out loud, and the group continued on to the suite in silence. They'd chosen this room over any others because of its closeness to the resorts' safes and low amount of traffic through the corridor. Not to mention the private elevator access that provided an ideal getaway route in the likely scenario that something went wrong.

Mal swiped the keycard and the door swished open with a sigh of relief.

"¡Ay de mi! I had no idea you could actually pay to be temporarily loaded. Bit of a paradox, no?" Rex bounded from the main sitting area to explore the rests of the room tucked away behind lavishly ornate doors.

Eyeing the vaulted ceiling, tall back chairs, overstuffed sofa, and intricately carved claw foot table, Mal let out a low whistle of appreciation. "Pretty fancy digs. I'm trying to find the right word to describe it…Oh, I don't know, how about white? Though I suppose they don't call it the alabaster suite 'cause everything's blue."

Kaylee remained silent, and Mal glanced over to find her staring aimlessly at a porcelain vase bursting with white lilies. "Kaylee, you…"

"He's got his momma's eyes." Her voice was heavy with a cheerless tone Mal thought he had heard the last of, and he silently wondered if she'd ever sound any different when it came to discussing Simon.

Suddenly, her big brown eyes snapped to him. "What's goin' on 'tween you and Inara?"

Thrown by the sudden change in subject and demeanor, Mal shook his head to clear it. "What now?"

"You and 'Nara. You guys seemed pretty friendly after ya broke up, but lately…you're back to goin' toe to toe over just about everything, especially me."

"Well…I…" Mal didn't know how to give her a straight answer even if he'd wanted to, but he was saved as Rex mad a boisterous reappearance into the room.

"I can lay down in bottom of the bathtub without bending my knees! Head to toe! I've died and gone to a proverbially heaven."

"I'll just let you two lovebirds get settled then." Noticing a chance for escape when one was presented to him, Mal backed away towards the door, Kaylee's pointed glare calling out his cowardice. "Zoe and I'll do some explorin' of the restricted wing and get back to you with the plan…later."

Kaylee rolled her eyes as Mal waved and stepped back through the door. "Estúpido imbecile," she muttered darkly.

Rex beamed. "That's the spirit! You're picking up the language already!"

* * *

AN: I wanted to give a big thanks to all of you who continue to read the story and to those who review. I'm sorry about the inconsistent spacing between updates, but now that finals are over and I'm on summer break, hopefully I'll be able to write more. There was a reviewer concerned about where I might be taking one of the relationships, and I just want to say that I don't want to reveal anything about content before I've posted or even written it. I'm sorry if future pairings turn you off of the story.


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